


$10 Support Group

by homotrons



Category: Cobra Starship, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, The Academy Is...
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-30
Packaged: 2018-03-08 01:31:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3190787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homotrons/pseuds/homotrons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikey's a mess, he'd even take up running laps in the rain to get out of the house. Lindsey's so full of stress about everything it's almost impressive. William and Gabe are just William and Gabe but that looks different to everyone. Ray needs longer shorts. Patrick probably should get a bed. Jessicka should knock more often. They're all having existential crises and just haven't quite named it yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i started writing this in like september and found it in my google docs and just sort of went with it since i still like the idea

Mikey had really mixed emotions about hanging out with Gerard and his friends. Hanging out with your brother in high school was bad enough, but they were some sort of oddly desirable group that he would like to be around that still managed to annoy the everliving piss out of him. Gerard wasn't very loud himself the majority of the time, he just got stubborn and his voice got squeaky when he'd get into an argument with a friend. The worst part was that Gerard's best friend was Mikey's best friend first. Mikey wasn't upset or accusing Gerard of best friend stealing because he really didn't care, they just hung out a lot and some days Mikey just wanted to take a nap but couldn't due to someone smacking someone else upside the head with a playstation controller. 

Gerard's friends really were quite the group of characters though. He was generally reclusive but the people he did like were people he kept as close as possible which Mikey could sort of admire. There was Lindsey who was a girl with already naturally dark hair and wore it in girly pigtails at the side of her head and had some of the nicest red lipstick out there. She had long legs and a Joan Jett type attitude that easily made her one of the most kickass people ever whose best friend was a girl named Jessicka who added the 'k' in there herself to pay homage to the works of Alister Crowley. Her hair was ratty and dreaded which was clearly a home job, but it suited her personality well. The two complimented each other very well. Ray Toro was someone who was the type of person that worked at soup kitchens and gave candy to children yet still managed to be one of the most talented guitar players either of the brothers had met. 

The macaroni and cheese was getting cold and Mikey decided eating it was the best option because there were still forty minutes left of the lunch period. His metabolism had the speed of a runner that placed in the Olympics whereas Gerard had spent years working off all of the weight he'd gained due to overall poor health and dietary habits starting at a young age. Mikey pulled off his glasses and started wiping them off with his jacket sleeve. 

"How do you even see out of those?" Gerard scrunched up his nose making him look like a rabbit due to its button shape. Mikey shrugged and put them back on the bridge of his nose. "Where did your vision even come from? I see great and so do Mom and Dad."

"Grandma Rush," Mikey answered monotonously and picked at his noodles covered in pale, generally unappealing cheese.

"Grandma Rush had cataracts," Gerard said sharply. "Seriously dude I don't know where the fuck you got it. Dad's eyes aren't the best but he also got injured before the draft and didn't have to go."

"Oh, I have a friend who had to go to all through all these weird tests and shit because his dad was spraying agent orange and stuff," Jessicka piped up. "There were kids like missing arms and stuff. He's normal but like some of that can be genetic I guess." Gerard visibly cringed at the details. 

"I don't know, Gerard, she might be onto something," Mikey smiled lightly. Gerard rolled his eyes and returned to eating his sandwich while Lindsey laughed at him. "Where's Ray?" 

"Track practice," Lindsey answered with her mouth full of diced peaches. "I would love to see that boy in running shorts," she giggled. Jessicka excused herself and said she'd be back soon. Mikey especially liked Lindsey, she was really cool and reminded him almost of a comic character, like she'd been transferred from a page instead of born into the real world just like everyone else. She and Gerard had met because of the junior year art fair. He was a comic artist and she did more three dimensional art that neither of them had a name for which they both respected each other immensely for. 

Jessicka returned with a short boy with essentially the same hairstyle as her just without the curled 90's bangs. His nose was really crooked and shaped oddly but it seemed to suit him. 

"Hey, you're back," Gerard said more to the newcomer than to Jessicka. "Jeordie, right?" 

"Indeed," he confirmed and sat down at the other end of the table. Gerard waved his hand loosely,

"That's my brother, Mikey." He nodded at Mikey and started almost inhaling his tater tots. Even for Mikey the guy seemed a bit odd but at least he was quiet and minded his own business. 

 

\------

 

Waiting outside of the track for Ray's practice to be over, Mikey debated pulling out a cigarette before deciding that the consequences of being caught just barely outweighed his craving. The grey sky hung above him like it usually did due to the boring Jersey weather. Sometimes he and his family would drive out to the beach during the holidays though none of them really swam or tanned. He pulled the peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of his backpack and began gnawing on it more to pass the time than to appease his stomach. 

Finally his friend ran up the metal bleachers to where he was sitting. Mikey looked up and finished chewing before putting down his sandwich. 

"Sorry, the soccer team had to use our changing rooms," Ray explained with the sweatband still wrapped around his forehead and large frizzy hair. 

"Is that why you still have your nylon booty shorts on?" Mikey looked down at his white thighs and double knotted red shoes. 

"They're not totally nylon and they're not booty shorts," Ray laughed and plopped down next to his friend. "How's that sandwich?" 

"It's alright," Mikey picked it up from his lap. "Mom made it; I can't even make a sandwich for shit." Ray pulled off his sweatband and set it on the spot next to him. There were a few members of both the track and soccer team still scattered here and there around the changing rooms and track.

"Want to go to my house and play XBox?" Ray offered with a smile. Mikey accepted ratehr quickly as he was sick of having to hear Gerard and Frank, the once best friend but now simply friend, play video games. Mikey's eyelids were sagging as he never slept enough anymore. For a fifteen year old he sure had a lot of problems already. 

"Don't mind if I fall asleep on your floor though," Mikey half-heartedly joked and they both began walking down the large sea of metal slabs used as seats for parents to obnoxiously cheer on their children. Sports were something that just did not interest Mikey, he couldn't do them nor find the right appreciation for them. Gerard used to play baseball but quit when he was twelve years old due to the joys of puberty and humiliation that came as a result. 

The walk down the crack filled sidewalk that spanned all the way from the school parking lot to Ray's house was uneventful. It was dry outside and Mikey's nose had already begun to hurt. They were both dressed insufficiently for the weather and the hair on Ray's legs had nearly started to stand up due to how bare they were. Winter was approaching and eventually track and soccer would have to be canceled until February. Ray had tried to convince Mikey to join and ashamedly Mikey was starting to take interest. 

Upon entering the house, Ray's tabby cat approached Mikey and began to assault his legs. Ray picked him up immediately, knowing how it could trigger Mikey's asthma if he wasn't careful. They both greeted Mrs. Toro and headed down to the basement where there was a small home theater and full Rockband kit. One of their relatives gave them it for Christmas the year prior and Ray and the brothers hadn't stopped playing it since. Gerard was uncomfortably good at singing Beastie Boys songs.

Mikey sat back in the rocking chair and Ray plopped down on the carpeted floor in front of him. 

"I should probably go change my clothes," Ray commented after a little while of sitting in silence. 

"No," Mikey complained, stretching out the 'o'. "Lindsey wants to see you in your shorts so can I at least send her a picture first?" 

"Fine," Ray decided not to put up a fight and stood up as Mikey pulled out his cellphone. He opened up the conversation with Lindsey before realizing that he needed to take the picture first. The photo was a bit blurry but it was still definitely Ray Toro in shorts. "Did you get it?"

"Indeed I did, hot shot. Girls must love the shit out of you," Mikey giggled and send the picture off. His phone barely got any reception from the basement but he trusted that either way he'd make sure Lindsey saw it. Ray was a real trooper for putting up with Mikey and Mikey knew it. 

"Does your brother still want to learn guitar?" Ray resumed his position on the floor. Mikey shook his head and made a noncommittal hand gesture. 

"Not sure. Neither of us can play anything for shit, at least he can sing." He tapped his foot on the carpet and felt like he was about to fall asleep right there. 

"Oh! By the way, I met this guy today from the soccer team, his name's Pete. He's apparently a good bass player, want me to tell him about you?" Ray offered. Mikey had tried learning bass numerous times, but just decided that his apparent lack of talent was a sign that he shouldn't even really try. 

"No, it's fine," Mikey shrugged a bit and rotated his phone around in his hand. 

"Alright." 

 

\------

 

"Patrick."

"Gabe."

"William."

"Yes?" the second tallest of the two sat up and pushed back his long hair as it covered the sides of his face when he got off the floor. Gabe chucked a black pen at William where it smacked him in the forehead before falling to the ground. "Okay."

"Let's get Wendy's."

"Fuck, the only close one is like in the grocery store parking lot and we'd have to take my mom's car," William objected and yawned before lazily passing the pen back at Gabe's lap.

"Alright, cool, let's do it then," Gabe grinned and leaned around to look for the cap to the pen that he pulled off before throwing it at his friend. 

"Will your mom even let you borrow the car though?" Patrick interjected, reminding William of the ban set on using the car that had been placed on him three months prior due to going out to a party with Gabe and a few of his buddies without getting proper permission. It was the first time he had really gotten in trouble, he was a really good kid. Maybe it was less that he was good and more that he was just quiet and obedient, he didn't smile or nod per say but he didn't voice rejection either. 

"Probably not, I don't know," William shrugged, not really giving an actual answer.

"We can just walk, the store's not that far away it's only like six blocks and I have cash," Gabe suggested.

"I was about to say 'Let's just take Patrick's car' before I remembered that you guys walked here," William rubbed away the gunk collecting by his tear ducts. "Why'd you guys do that by the way?"

"Couldn't miss a single day without seeing you Billiam," Gabe made a fake pouty face before throwing the pen at William once more.

"Fucking hell," William groaned and stood up. "I'll walk to Wendy's with you two if I stop getting office supplies thrown at me."

"Deal," Gabe smiled widely and Patrick rolled his eyes a bit before standing up to join them. William was quiet when he was apart from Gabe, and Patrick was quiet when he was with them. It never bothered him, he could still speak up he was just comfortable not doing so as they were comfortable interacting constantly.

"So you do have cash?" Patrick asked Gabe before they walked out the door.

"Yup," Gabe confirmed and opened William's bedroom door. They walked up the basement stairs right into the kitchen where his mother stood, dicing tomatoes. "Why hello Mrs. Beckett, your son and Patrick and I are going to go walk to the Wendy's down by the store if you do not mind."

"Sure, go ahead boys. I wish you boys would start riding your bikes again, I loved watching it when you were younger and you got a lot more exercise, you know?" she looked back at them briefly before sliding the tomatoes pieces off the knife.

"We'll try I promise. What're you cooking?" Gabe inquired politely. Despite the car incident and knowing how Gabe behaved when he wasn't around her, William's mom did love him terribly for how courteous he was to her and for keeping her son company for a good six years.

"Just making some pasta sauce for dinner later, mine's better than the store bought stuff," she answered with a wink.

"I'd love to try it sometime," Gabe just about beamed.

"You and Patrick can stay for dinner if you'd like," she offered.

"I thought you'd never ask! Thank you very much Mrs. Beckett. Anyway, we're off to go grab chicken sandwiches, would you like anything?"

"No, I'm alright but thanks though." Gabe nodded at her before the three took off down the hall to the front door. Once they got outside William began teasing Gabe for how he interacted with his mother.

"God, I'm surprised you haven't just moved in and asked me to call you dad yet," William rolled his wide eyes. "Talk up my mom like that any more and I'll have to stop being friends with you."

"Oh fuck off, I'm being nice, like you don't kiss ass for my mom," Gabe retorted.

"Except I don't! I barely go over there and I just say 'hi' and 'how are you?' before running upstairs," William defended himself.

"I mean all in all the exchange was only like seven sentences but it was still kind of weird," Patrick tilted his head to the side a bit.

"Even Patrick agrees and he's like the nicest guy ever! We've got you pinned Saporta!"

"Jesus christ Beckett, maybe I will become your new dad if you don't shut your mouth," Gabe threatened causing William to fake gag.

"I hate you," William moaned.

"You too, querido."

 

\------

 

"Ballato, Ballato, let down your Italian locks," Jessicka yelled as she knocked on Lindsey's balcony doors. Lindsey sighed and hopped off of her bed before opening the door.

"That was shitty wordplay," she stated before Jessicka walked past her and jumped on her bed. "I'm also sick of you climbing my drain pipe," Lindsey turned around and pointed at her best friend, "one day you're going to fucking crush it for all I know. I mean like the whole neighborhood can see you too, why don't you just knock on the front door?"

"I don't know, 's more fun this way," Jessicka slurred her words a bit and picked up the book Lindsey had tossed down. "So what are you doing?" she asked as Lindsey flopped back on her bed.

"Just planning to become a vegetable so I don't have to plan for the future and I can shit in a pan and eat out of a tube."

"That's fucking gross dude, what's wrong?" Jessicka cringed a bit though she was quite unaffected really.

"I'm just like really stressed about the end of the semester and having a lot of shit to do and college and I can't keep up on homework and hail mary it every Sunday and my mom's really mad and it's just really shitty," Lindsey forced all out at once. 

"Tough life, I'm sorry. I sort of get it but yeah that's shit," Jessicka tried to sympathize. "Is there anything else?"

"I mean yeah of course there is but not really," Lindsey brushed off the question. 

"No boy troubles, right? Because it's going to be kind of hard for everyone to think we're lesbians together when you're having boyfriend issues," Jessicka moved her mouth to one side.

"We'll always be lesbians together no matter what, Jess. Anyway, I kind of want to make a move on Gerard I'm not going to lie but for real I think he might be gay."

"I'm going to be honest I kind of saw that one coming from a mile away."

"What part?" Lindsey scrunched up her eyebrows defeatedly.

"Both. Like you liking Gerard and thinking he's gay. Honestly I was just about sure he was gay, especially since Mikey started talking about how much time he spends with Frank."

"Frank?"

"Iero."

"Oh, right okay."

"Yeah, he might be straight or bi though but like I really wouldn't be surprised if he had something going on," Jessicka finished.

"Yeah, true," Lindsey agreed. "Like usually I wouldn't care about someone's sexuality but since I like him it's different, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah," Jessicka nodded. "I'm sorry Linds, that sucks."

"It's fine, I don't really care I can go without him, it's not totally wrecking me."

"Well that's good. Both of those brothers are both pretty just sort of like not necessarily hard to figure out, but nothing they did could be that surprising, you get what I mean? Like if it turned out they dug up graves or something everyone would think that was weird but it was almost expected because it was them," Jessicka thought out loud.

"That makes sense, like I've always sort of thought that just didn't have a way to phrase it. Like if Gerard's gay it won't be a big deal because if anyone is it would probably be the most unsurprising for it to be him. I kind of hope he's not gay though, is that selfish?" Lindsey questioned.

"Of course not, you like him it's fair to hope you have a chance."

"True but like what if he is straight but I still don't have a chance?"

"Then that's some tough shit."

"Amen," Lindsey clicked her tongue. 

 

\------

 

Mikey sat on the kitchen counter Indian style and watched his brother and ex-best friend play Super Mario Brothers right next to each other in the same sitting position. It wasn't that he was necessarily jealous, it was just weird. Gerard was weird, Frank was weird, it just made for an odd and sort of unexplainable situation. Perhaps it was because Frank was one of Mikey's only friends who used to burn his CDs and now even though Frank got to hang out with all of Gerard's other friends, he couldn't hang out with the friend that was his friend first.

He was about to just accept his fate when on a whim Frank invited him to play with them, knowing that at least the version they had only had two players.

"No thanks," Mikey answered before heading up the stairs, trying to decide whether or not he was to be mourning a missed opportunity. It was just fuzzy to him, he couldn't tell if it actually bothered him that Frank was Gerard's new best friend and if he did care, whether or not playing a Nintendo game would help that and really have been an opportunity. Everything was unclear to him, it was like he was just wading in space. Maybe he should start smoking weed with Jessicka like she'd offered, he was already out of touch enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pretty much a standard filler chapter i guess though hopefully it showed a bit more about the characters and their relationships with each other though not gracefully at all. shit writing generally, it's mostly dialogue and it's not even 3K works lol. i pretty much know which parts of my writing need to improve atm so next chapter will hopefully be better as i've been writing a lot more lately and trying to improve more.

Lindsey rubbed at her eyes and looked back down at her book that she was beginning to resent the more she read it. Studying was a vice and one that she had to deal with often as she was determined to keep up on what she had to do and to not fall behind or anger her mother. It felt refreshing and quite good, but she still took breaks very often and just about wished for Jessicka to climb up her drain pipe. Instead Jessicka was in the bathroom and Lindsey was sitting in the library with the middle schoolers on lunch break playing soccer which she could see fully through the full wall of windows she was sitting in front of. 

She and Jessicka had kissed once in seventh grade and a few more times in eighth. It was bound to happen, Jess read lots of books about lesbians and feminism and sex and Lindsey just wanted someone to touch her. They were best friends and they were close and had always talked about what they wanted even when it did come to things like sex. Neither of them were lesbians or even bi, they never seemed to put words to themselves and if they did they didn't tell each other. Lindsey had one brief boyfriend when she was fifteen and that was it really, now she was seventeen and it hadn't been on her mind much until she started wanting Gerard. 

She looked over to the long tables and saw William Beckett lying on his back on one of them with Gabe Saporta drawing on his arm, though the latter took her a bit longer to notice. She didn't know either of them much, she knew Jessicka knew William because of theatre but that was where her connection with the two stopped and even then it was a stretch. Gabe knew about Lindsey because he thought she was really pretty and they attended one of the same parties and Patrick mentioned her there. He didn't know her though, he just knew of her like she knew of him.

"What'd you draw?" William whispered down at Gabe without actually looking at him, his large nose pointed up and his hair pooling around his shoulders which caused him to itch a bit.

"Just wait till I'm done," Gabe replied a bit too loudly. William sighed with a bit of a squeak in uncomfortability and impatience. Gabe wasn't a good artist, but he had fun doodling, especially on skin and he didn't have a clue as to why. William's forearms were really white and smooth, like some sort of a tattoo artist's dream and Gabe figured he might as well take advantage of it. "Okay, there you go," he popped the cap back on the washable black marker he found in the cup of writing utensils previously in the middle of the table before William took its place.

"'Kay," William said before sitting up and looking at his arm. It was a slightly sloppy tree done entirely in dots which explained why he felt Gabe alternating between the marker and a ballpoint pen. Overall he did quite like it. "Wow, thanks, that's really cool."

"For real?" Gabe inquired.

"Yeah for real," William confirmed. Gabe let out a bit of a 'huh' sound before saying thanks. He didn't expect much, it was just a doodle. William hopped off of the table and slid back into his seat for when the librarians came back. He turned his head to Gabe before asking, "Should I cut my hair?"

"What?" Gabe swallowed. "No, I don't think so at least, why do you ask?"

"No reason, was just wondering I guess." Gabe nodded and accepted the response he got though he didn't totally believe him. He'd known that William had always been self conscious about his looks anyway, but especially since he'd grown out his hair and started getting comments and looks for it. It upset Gabe since he knew William genuinely liked how his hair looked but other people were discouraging him. Nothing William did seemed to be for himself and that was the one hang up Gabe had about William if he could really consider that a hang up. It just made him sad that William wasn't confident enough to either at least stand up for himself or do things just because he wanted to.

"Do you want to head to lunch early?" Gabe poked William in the shoulder when he looked away.

"Not really, sounds nice but I don't want to risk it," William declined.

"Ah come on, we're not even in a real period anyway, it's not like we're skipping class or anything really," Gabe argued.

"Fine, just hurry up and grab your stuff," William resigned and picked up his bookbag from the side of his seat. Gabe grinned and proceeded to do the same. Sometimes he felt a bit bad, like maybe he was manipulating William, but generally every time he felt that way he managed to talk himself out of it because William never actually seemed angry or disappointed with him. 

 

\------

 

Mikey dangled his legs from the bench in the school hallway he was sitting on. He was waiting for the bell to ring so he could go and get food as he had forgotten to make something that morning. Usually he brought his own food just to save time and because he never knew what the school was going to be serving until he actually got there unless he overheard someone saying it to someone else before lunch which didn't happen often. At one point he'd even begun fixing meals for Gerard too, but it became a bit too much of a hassle for him each morning and he knew Gerard wouldn't take the news of not having a peanut butter sandwich premade too harshly.

He rummaged through his backpack a bit just to see if there was anything to pass time. Jessicka's friend from lunch then decided to plop down next to him without him noticing until a bit after he'd quit looking for something to do.

"Oh hi, sorry," Mikey apologized. "Jeordie, right?"

"Yeah," the boy confirmed. "That's almost exactly what your brother said to me yesterday actually, sort of funny."

"Oh yeah that is kind of funny. Why'd you remember that though?" Mikey asked as it struck him as very odd that someone would specifically remember something that seemingly insignificant. Jeordie shrugged and leaned over to grab something out of his bag this time.

"Want part of my sandwich?" he offered as he held up a bag and pulled one diagonal piece.

"Uh sure," Mikey nodded. "You haven't like taken a bite out of it have you?"

"Nah," Jeordie shook his head. "I've got another half anyway," he said as he pulled it out of the brown bag.

"Sweet, thanks," Mikey accepted the half being handed to him.

"No problem." 

 

\------

 

After school instead of Gerard and Frank hanging out, Gerard and Ray hung out and Mikey decided that rather than joining them, he was going to join the study party of sorts that Jessicka and Lindsey were having. It was at Jessicka's house in her mom's craft room that they usually weren't allowed in but Mikey had an art project to do and her mom seemed to like him. That immediately struck Jessicka as odd, but she ignored it as they all settled into the usually drafty room with the blinds shut and all of them sitting on the ground.

"So is your brother straight?" Jessicka started quickly after a couple of minutes of minimal conversation. Lindsey looked up at her and looked clearly annoyed.

"No clue," Mikey didn't bat an eye and just continued to cut out construction paper, "it's not really something that I care much about. He hasn't told me so I doubt he'd want me to know. Sorry."

"Jess, what the hell?" Lindsey asked bluntly, not bothering to pull her to the side and handle her issue with the question in private. 

"Was just asking, calm down," Jessicka blew her off regardless of how she just about immediately regretted letting the question slip out of her mouth. 

"It's not your business really though. Even then you could've just asked Gerard and not asked his brother behind his back good hell," Lindsey inhaled a bit at the end of her sentence frustratedly.

"I'm sorry," Jessicka apologized exasperatedly.

"It's fine, Gerard would've given you the same answer to be honest, I doubt even he knows," Mikey interrupted.

"Yeah maybe but that's not really the problem," Lindsey stated.

"I know, just felt like adding that so it doesn't get made to be bigger than it is," Mikey defended himself as he threw the excess paper into the makeshift scraps pile he'd created. He didn't really care much but he felt a bit under attack from how Lindsey sounded. It was unreasonable but he wasn't going to care for reason when no one knew about how he felt except for him.

"Okay," Lindsey sighed. Then none of them talked for a while, it was uncomfortable and tense and just generally anxiety inducing at best, but it still happened. Mikey put together the paper feathers for his paper turkey and Lindsey kept accidentally snapping her mechanical pencil's led. Jessicka began a cycle of twirling her dreads around in her fingers and then tucking them behind her ear before playing with them again. Mikey still kind of wanted to touch them, he couldn't imagine what they felt like actually and how much hair had fallen out and gotten stuck in them.

Then he started thinking about how she managed to get people to refer to her with the added 'k' in her name. It was kind of cool to him, but it was also pretty fucking hilarious considering how stupid it sounded the more he thought about it. He didn't want to admit it, it just made him laugh that she decided to add an extra letter to her name for some sort of weird personal significance and then it somehow stuck and everyone thought of her as Jessicka and not just Jessica which was her actual name. It was only a single letter too, that was what got him, she didn't change the spelling entirely but she seemed to either think having 8 letters instead of 7 was very important or everyone else just went with it regardless of how much it actually mattered to her.

He was fine with it, it was kind of cool. He started to think about how his name was actual Michael but people called him Mikey and whether or not that was his decision or not. His mom used to call him that, he knew that, but he couldn't have imagined it would've simply stuck that much. He couldn't go back so far in his memory to decipher how his name became Mikey instead of Michael and it was starting to bother him a bit. He liked Mikey, he liked that being his name and not Michael, though it was extremely odd to him to not know why his name was Mikey. 

"Mikey, sometime I want to do your makeup dude," Jessicka offered once around five minutes passed. She was good at that kind of stuff, she did a lot of the makeup for the drama productions at school.

"Go for it, I'm not that pretty though," he agreed apathetically.

"Don't underestimate yourself like that, it's not good for self esteem," Jessicka scolded him. "Just drop by the drama room sometime, I'm there a lot after school."

"Sweet."

"Are they even doing a play right now?" Lindsey asked, though not seeming to have gotten over their semi-altercation earlier.

"Yeah, well they're about to," Jessicka answered. "By the way Gabe invited me to a house party."

"Who's Gabe?" Mikey asked. Lindsey didn't know Jessicka knew Gabe.

"Saporta?" Jessicka clarified.

"Nope, still doesn't ring a bell."

"Oh, he's a guy I sort of know, he's pretty well known around school I guess. Anyway, he's having a party if you guys want to go, I don't really want to go alone it's just sort of boring."

"Yeah I'll go but why can't you go alone if we're all going to end up away from each other the whole time anyway?" Lindsey argued.

"I don't know, it's just good to know there's someone there you know," Jessicka shrugged. "You in, Mikey?"

"Why not? When is it?" he said, not really caring whether he went or not, he just agreed to just about everything that meant getting out of the house.

"Like next Saturday I think, just show up anytime past eight I'm sure like every party pretty much," Jessicka joked.

"What's today?" Mikey asked.

"Thursday."

"Sweet."

 

\------

Ray fell over on his back onto the beanbag on his floor. Gerard blew air out of his mouth and started laughing. He pulled off his hoodie and threw it at Ray who was super beat from playing three songs on Rockband non-stop.

"You know who Pete Wentz is?" Ray asked Gerard, just barely regaining his breath.

"Yeah, a bit, why do you ask?" Gerard panted, sitting down on the couch next to his friend.

"Want me to invite him over to join our Rockband party since Mikey's not here?" Ray suggested.

"Yeah if you want, I wish Mikey would just haul his ass over here though. He's always like this lately and it's really fucking annoying," Gerard ranted a bit.

"I'm sorry man, why do you think he does that? He came over the other day I don't know why he wouldn't today but you know I don't live with him so," Ray didn't quite finish his sentence since he didn't know how and the point got across anyway.

"Just being a prissy fuck probably. Never wants to hang out with the family, just hides away, kind of pisses me off really. I spend a lot of time in my room but at least I come out and act like a decent human being and not a mopey little shit," Gerard complained and bit at the peeling skin on his lip. Ray listened, not really taking one side or another though thinking maybe Gerard was overreacting a bit.

"That sucks, have you ever brought it up?" Ray asked, just adding to conversation, not really trying to come to a solution.

"Of course not, what'd it even achieve?" Gerard nearly spat back.

"Not sure, just an idea," Ray sat up.

"I mean I'll do it, it's not really a bad idea," Gerard stated.

"Go for it dude," Ray encouraged his friend tiredly.


End file.
